Tuesday, June 19, 2012

On September 18, 1978 KISS did the unthinkable by releasing four solo albums simultaneously. For fans of the greasepainted superheroes, it's common knowledge that while the albums sold respectably they were marred by the overreaching of Casablanca president Neil Bogart's decision to ship a million units of each record. This resulted in the albums being returned in huge numbers. But that's not the point of this gallery.

On December 12, 1978 a party (See UPDATE below) was held to at Fiorucci's in Beverly Hills. Founded by Italian fashion designer Elio Fiorucci, the store was a popular chain throughout the United States and the Beverly Hills location can bee seen in this clip of Electric Light Orchestra performing the song All Over the World in the film Xanadu.

Of note in the photos is Gene's "solo" costume that was a variation of his Love Gun costume featuring two skulls used to tie together a bulky red cape. This period is when KISS really started incorporating their "power" colors with Gene's naturally being red.

UPDATE: We originally uploaded/promoted this gallery as the Release Party for Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album. We were mistaken and recently found out that this was, in actuality, the screening party for the re-release of Pinocchio. We regret this error and thank the source of the new information.

Special guests at this party included Brooke Shields, Jon "Bowzer" Bauman from the group Sha Na Na and Pinocchio, the star of the show. There's no mystery that Gene Simmons counts Pinnochio as a pivotal movie in his life as is obvious by the inclusion of his teary-eyed rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star that closes the album.

UPDATE: We originally uploaded/promoted this gallery as the Release Party for Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album. We were mistaken and recently found out that this was, in actuality, the screening party for the re-release of Pinocchio. We regret this error and thank the source of the new information.

For full photographer/contributor credit for all of our In Photos posts, click here.

Special thanks to God of Thunder Page for supplying the photos.
For full photographer/contributor credit for all of our In Photos posts, click HERE.